iPhone 5: Customers complain of scratches

Apple customers who have waited to get their hands on the new iPhone 5 have expressed disappointment over the nicks and scratches on newly purchased smartphones.

Dissatisfied buyers took to message boards dedicated to Apple products, complaining about slight yet pesky scuffs and scrapes near the antenna markers on the side of the device or close to the screen.

According to posts on sites like MacRumors, it appears that most of the problems are limited to the black version of iPhone 5.

'Mine arrived today with small scratches on the right out of the box. Looks like they chipped the anodised coating putting the screen in, and there is a small mark on the lower back too, by the glass section,' the Daily Mail nquoted MacRumors commenter spr97ajm, as saying.

'I'm not going to worry about it, but it shows the coating is soft, and will chip over time,' he added.

Another forum user Sick z33 said that his black iPhone also came with a 'couple of the nicks,' the paper said.

'Will use the phone till Apple decides to release something regarding the issue,' the smartphone owner concluded.

According to the paper, the damage was done intentionally by a user who wanted to test the durability of the anodised aluminum case by rubbing keys and a sim card tray on the back of a display model at an Apple store.

However, the purported susceptibility of the new iPhone to abrasions was just one cause for complaints among customers, the paper said.

Many users blasted Apple for swapping out the usually reliable Google Maps software with its own version of mapping technology in iOS 6, which has been plagued by embarrassing glitches, from misnamed cities to missed landmarks, it added.